INFLUENCE OF FORESTRY ON LUMBER INDUSTRY
They have become accustomed to your
leadership, and if you succeed in trans
porting the selected hunters and the
best families to the north shore of Grant
Land, as you propose, you will thereby
establish a base which will enable you
to live in safety and comparative com
fort for an indefinite period.
Grant Land as such base has great
advantages over Spitzbergen, Franz
Josef Land, or any other known point,
in that it has an extensive shore line,
which a party retreating from the Pole
cannot fail to find, whatever may be
the extent of the polar drift.
In establishing a colony of Esquimaux
at this point, you thereby establish a
self-sustaining base at the nearest prac
ticable point to the Pole. Such self
sustaining base has not heretofore been
established in any such high latitude.
Your ability to force your ships to a high
northing with this Esquimau colony is
all important to your success. Such
northing has been made by the Polaris,
the Alert, the Discovery, and the Proteus.
There would seem to be no reason why
you can not do the same. Knowledge of
ice conditions that has been gained since
that time will certainly enable you to
provide a ship better adapted to the pur
pose than either one of these.
The attainment of the Pole should be
your main object. Nothing short will
suffice. The discovery of the Poles is
all that remains to complete the map of
the world. That map should be com
pleted in our generation and by our
countrymen. If it is claimed that the
enterprise is fraught with danger and
privation, the answer is that geograph
ical discovery in all ages has been pur
chased at the price of heroic courage
and noble sacrifice. Our national pride
is involved in the undertaking, and this
department expects that you will ac
complish your purpose and bring fur
ther distinction to a service of illustrious
traditions.
In conclusion, I am pleased to inform
you that the President of the United
States sympathizes with your cause and
approves the enterprise.
With best wishes for your health and
confidence in your success,
I am, respectfully,
CHARLES H. DARLING,
Acting Secretary.
The Peary Arctic Club, which so gen
erously supported Mr Peary's explora
tions I898-1902, have contributed the
funds that make this new expedition
possible.
THE INFLUENCE OF FORESTRY UPON THE
LUMBER INDUSTRY OF THE
UNITED STATES*
BY OVERTON W. PRICE,
ASSISTANT FORESTER, BUREAU OF FORESTRY
THE development of the lumber
industry in this country is
without parallel. It now ranks
fourth among the great manufacturing
industries of the United States, and
represents an invested capital of about
$6ii,000,000 and an annual outlay of
over $1oo,ooo,ooo in wages.
It af-
* Republished from the Year Book of the Department of Agriculture for 1902.
381